As a professional bridging the gap between behavior science and SEL, I am all about making emotional skills observable, measurable, and explicit. It can be really hard to take coping skills - a skill that comes naturally to some and often takes place internally - and break it down into concrete steps for instruction. Recently though, I came across a diamond of a book that does just that, and I want to share it with you. It's called "Felix and the Feelings Formula" by Kate Bartlein. This story follows Felix, a young elementary school student with some signs of neurodivergency and a book of feelings formulas. As readers go through Felix's day, we see Felix encounter feeling after feeling, using his formulas to work through each one individually. Honestly, formula is the perfect word for what this book teaches. Here's some things I love about it:
There's a couple things to be aware of if you're going to use this book in the classroom, though. Here's some things to keep in mind:
Now that we've talked about the book itself, let's dive into some ways to use it in your classroom! Teach it as a unit to an individual, small group, or whole group. Using an interactive read aloud format, I would go through one scenario, feeling, and formula at a time. Since the book covers about 10 formulas (personally, I would combine two of them) it could cover about two weeks worth of morning meetings or pull out instruction. You could read a section then have students create their own feelings formula related to the section, discuss what they'd do the same or different compared to Felix, and explicitly teach behaviors you as the teacher will be able to later reinforce. Use it as a reference book. Take some of those sticky tabs or even just sticky notes and label where each feeling is located within the book. As students encounter and identify these types of feelings (and/or the behaviors associated with them), pull out the book and review what Felix's formula was for that particular emotion. Try the feelings formula together, first in isolation, but eventually in a moment of stress; or decide on their own formula to try instead. Create interactive BSEL notebooks. Felix keeps all of his formulas in a notebook that he takes with him everywhere. Students can do this too! This notebook could be built during the unit then added onto over time. Students can also create and experiment with a variety of formulas in their notebooks to find what strategies work best for their minds and bodies. The publisher even offers some accompanying activities that would lend perfectly to this. ***I was offered a copy of this book for free in exchange for my honest review We already know books provide opportunities to teach just about any skill, and that includes behavioral, social, and emotional skills, too! Through character, conflict, and more, BSEL skills can be found on nearly every page. A library of BSEL books gives you endless options to incorporate academics as well. Grab some BSEL books and get teaching!
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Meet JennyI'm a special education teacher turned BSEL coach. If I'm not geeking out on the research, I'm probably snuggling up on the couch with my husband and our two cats, Gibson and Binks. Categories
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